


of bloody bandages and bloody obliviousness

by slytherinaleister (irlbigfoot)



Series: Endless Summer Ficlets [2]
Category: Endless Summer (Visual Novel), PlayChoices
Genre: Awkward Romance, Drabble, F/M, Height Differences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-11
Updated: 2017-03-11
Packaged: 2018-10-02 12:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10217921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/irlbigfoot/pseuds/slytherinaleister
Summary: "you were injured, that's certainly something in my book!"





	

**Author's Note:**

> after the gang got back to the hotel i was honestly expecting aleister to freak out/at least notice that grace (aka my daughter and the loml) got freakin aTTACKED BY A SABRE TOOTH TIGER. buuut if that happened we didn't see it, so here's my take on how the whole scene might've gone down!

Aleister’s gaze swept around the lobby of The Celestial, his brow scrunched in disdain. The walls and floors were all polished to perfection, and each piece of furniture no doubt cost hundreds of dollars apiece. The thought that Everett Rourke- of all people- was in command of such a place made his blood boil. 

Aleister’s eyes shifted to the side, and he tensed- it was Grace, hunched over on a bench a bit further down from him, frowning pensively to herself. Immediately, his mind flashed to earlier- when the group had returned.

When Aleister first saw the group, he had opened his mouth, ready to make a snarky remark about how he’d be surprised if they found much of anything- but as he casually (or as casually as he could manage) glanced at Grace out of the corner of his eye, his words died in his throat. 

Though the small girl was hunched over, arms hugging her stomach, there was no mistaking the giant rust-coloured splotch staining her orange sweater. 

Aleister was never one to make a scene, so he simply kept a watchful eye on her as he listened to the group recount their tale- he didn’t have the heart to make a scathing remark, merely mustering up a few scoffs and scowls here and there. Soon she and a couple others were attended to by Michelle.

Aleister mind returned to the present- he looked around, and deducted that the lobby appeared to be deserted, everyone else having returned to their rooms. He took a deep breath, puffed out his chest, and made his way over to the brunette.

As he reached her, he stood awkwardly for a moment- the girl seemed too absorbed in her thoughts to notice him. He cleared his throat, a bit sharper than intended.

“Oh!” Grace looked up, expression turning from worried to bright. Aleister felt his face heat up at the sight of her doe-like eyes gazing up at him. “Aleister! H-how are you?”

Aleister cleared his throat again. He was overcome with the uncanny feeling that his tongue had been replaced with a dead slug. “ _Ahem_. I am, er, doing quite well. And you?”

Grace shrugged sheepishly, fiddling with the sleeves of her sweater. “Oh, I’m doing fine. I’m just glad to be back. I-” She paused, then shook her head slightly, apparently changing her mind. “Yeah, I’m okay, _heh_.”

“Are you?” Aleister arched a brow, crossing his arms. “I saw you sporting _quite_ a sizable blood stain on your sweater earlier.”

“O-oh,” Grace blushed, looking a bit ashamed as her gaze dropped back down- Aleister immediately uncrossed his arms. “You saw that?”

If this were anyone else, Aleister would have responded with a heavy dose of sarcasm- but this was Grace, and the thought of the look on her face after him saying such a thing made his chest hurt. So he simply said, “Yes. What happened?”, wincing at how interrogatory he sounded.

Grace shrugged again, trying her best to avoid looking at the taller man. “Um, just a scratch. It’s nothing, really! I-I’ll be fine.”

Aleister frowned skeptically at the girl’s odd behavior. “Grace, you would forgive me if I do not quite believe you.”

Grace was silent for a moment as she chewed her lip anxiously. Then, she sighed in resignation and slowly pulled her sweater up, cheeks tinging pink as she avoided Aleister’s icy gaze. Aleister’s own face heated up as he nearly let out a squawk, before he saw what was underneath.

Grace’s entire abdomen was smothered with white bandages. Aleister’s face continued to redden- now for a different reason entirely, as he realized that “just a scratch” would hardly be cause for- for _this_.  


“The- the sabertooth,” Grace spoke quietly, her dark cheeks flushing as she released her sweater, letting it drop back down. “It caught up with us. I’m fine, though.”

_Those incompetent egomaniacs._ Aleister felt his body begin to tremble. Were they so self-absorbed that they were incapable of looking after one person? The thing was giant- it wasn’t like it was very capable of sneaking up on them. He knew that the lot, aside from Grace, were unholy incompetent- but for them to allow this to happen under their watch? How careless could you be? Thanks to their utter recklessness, an innocent person was now hurt.

“A-Aleister?” Grace’s voice wavered as she slowly leaned away from the taller man. Aleister’s icy blue eyes had begun to narrow and darken like thunder clouds, his body shaking in barely-concealed rage. “Aleister?”

Aleister noticed the look of apprehension on Grace’s face, and immediately his face flushed with shame. He attempted to force his shoulders down and still his body as best as he could. “A true leader doesn’t allow this kind of thing to happen.” His tone was eerily calm. “This happened on their watch, the _self-absorbed simpleto_ -”

“I-it’s nothing, really-”

“You were injured, that’s certainly something in my book!” Aleister snapped, his tone clipped. He paused, before taking a deep breath. “I am angry because- because _somebody_ got hurt. That shouldn’t have happened. I would have expected those- those _buffoons_ \- to be a bit more cautious.”

“I don’t mind, really,” Grace reassured him in a small, soothing voice. “Aleister, hey-” Much to the pale-haired man’s surprise, the girl reached out, lightly grabbed his wrist and- with surprising force- gently tugged him down onto the bench beside her. “It’s alright, really. It was an accident, I’m fine now, see? I’m all bandaged up.”

Aleister was silent as he stared at the maroon stain on the girl’s stomach. He looked down at his hand, bony fingers splayed out on the bench. His hand tensed as he closed his eyes, an image immediately colouring the insides of his eyelids. The muscle-bound beast, course sinew rippling under matted fur, flying through the air with its limbs outstretched and eyes course set for Grace- Grace, wonderful Grace, smart Grace who understood the world, who understood important things (like how intelligence will get you much farther in life than popularity)- whose face was frozen in fear, eyes tearing up and mouth agape in a silent scream. Grace, her entire body tensed up and leaning away from the prehistoric beast, like she did sometimes when people would argue or yell. Seeing her do that always made Aleister feel angry, somehow- angry that someone as brilliant and capable as Grace had to be scared of anything. Someone like her- so obviously better than the rest of the morons in the group- should know her worth, shouldn’t be scared to flaunt her intelligence.

“ _Aleister_ ,” Grace spoke softly, her voice trembling a bit. Aleister un-scrunched his eyes to see that they were now face-to-face. His breath caught in his throat- he didn’t think he’d ever been this close to her before. He could see every fleck of gold in her amber eyes, he could see and feel her inhale and exhale, he could-

Shock slammed into Aleister like a train. Barely choking down a squawk, he flew back, almost tumbling off the bench. “W-well then,” He scrambled to his feet, nearly falling. He did something that somewhat resembled a hasty bow, “I-I must retire to my chambers, but I wish you a swift recovery.” He paused, feeling as if there was something else he should say, though was unsure what. He then spun around sharply and marched over to the stairwell in long, terse strides, completely ignoring the elevator.

As Aleister turned the corner and escaped Grace’s view, he sighed and slumped his shoulders as he continued to climb the stairs, long legs propelling him up quickly, even as his mind wandered.

Aleister was so absent-minded, in fact, that he also didn’t notice a certain hacker was leaning against the wall, chewing and popping her gum.

“Screw reality TV,” Zahra muttered under her breath, grinning. “That was way more fun to watch.”


End file.
